Someone is up to their old tricks again in advance of Dalai Lama visit

September 04, 2011

Once again a campaign is underway to monitor those directly involved in the organization of this week's visit by the Dalai Lama to Montreal, the Canada Tibet Committee revealed today.

Two emails infected with a computer virus, supposedly sent by the Canada Tibet Committee's Executive Director Dermod Travis, have so far been sent out this month by unknown cybercriminals.

One of those emails was a crude copy of an earlier email he had sent to issue a legitimate news release on cybercrime in early August and the second – not even written by him – was sent last week.

These emails contained attachments with a keystroke virus intended to monitor activity on the computer that it infects. The virus is only activated if the accompanying attachment is opened by the recipient. The distribution of these emails by unknown hackers is highly targeted and does not include the general public.

“Canadians would never tolerate their fellow citizens trying to spy on them. We wouldn't tolerate our government spying on us. And the Canadian government must not tolerate foreign citizens or governments harassing those working on lawful public events in Canada,” said Travis.

Posters for the Public Talk of the Dalai Lama have also been singled out for vandalism at multi-poster locations across Montreal where other posters remained unscathed.

“It's not unusual to see this type of heinous activity prior to a visit by the Dalai Lama, but rarely to this intensity,” said Travis. “Regrettably, there are those who don't seem to know that we live in a free country and the culprits behind these attacks need to hear loud and clear that we won't be intimidated by them. We also know that Montrealers won't be intimidated.”

Other suspicious activities have been and will continue to be reported to the appropriate authorities. The CTC will not speculate on the identity of the perpetrators of these attacks or their country of residence.